of the remembrance of ydols from the earth sayth the Lord of Hostes. All this is nothing els but the clearing of men from their sinnes and the abolishing of Sathans reigne To bee short Malachie telleth vs of Christ That he shall bring vs an Attonement betwéene GOD and vs. And of the Ambassadour whom GOD ment to send afore him to prepare his wayes He sayth that hee shall turne the heartes of the Children to their Fathers and the heartes of the Fathers to their children By the preparation of the Ambassadour we iudge of the Office of his Maister namely that his comming is properly to reigne in our Soules seeing his Ambassadour prepareth them for him exhorting vs to turne away from our sinnes Now of this long but yet néedefull discourse wee gather two things The one against the Gentyles which is that the meane of cleansing mankind hath bin promised and preached euen from the fall of Adam and that the same promise is from time to time brought to our remembrance by our scriptures to wit that it is doone by Christ who was to bée borne of the womans séede by Abraham Iuda Dauid and others The other is against the Iewes of our tyme who looke still for a Christ to come which is that the deliuerāce promised by him is not ment of the tyranny of some earthly Prince ouer vs but of the Tyranny which the diuell exerciseth in our Soules by the vnrighteousnes of sinne the rewarde whereof is euerlasting death The Gentiles of old tyme yéelded vnto these texts when they had once imbraced the spirituall kingdome of Christ and it may be that if we had to doo with the Iewes of elder tyme the matter should soone bee dispatched For all the forealledged Texts haue bene vnderstood of the Messias and of his reigne both by the auncient Rabbines and by the Chaldee Paraphrasts Moreouer it is very manifest that the Cabalists who wrate long tyme afore the Talmudistes and who as they say doo pearce into the very Marowe of the Scriptures wheras the Talmudists doe but grate vppon the barke of them haue vnderstoode that the cleansing away of sinne and the heating of the contagious venome which the Serpent did shed into Adam and by him into the whole ofspring of man was to bee wrought by the Messias Yet for all this notwithstāding al the forecasts of mans wit we want not some euen of the newer sort of Writers which haue vnderstoode it after the maner aforesaid The exposition of Salomons Balett vpon these words A Grape of Copher makes this allusion Eschcol Haccopher That vnto the Church Christ is a man of full attonement who shall be borne of the Children of Abraham and shall make satisfaction for sinnes in such sort as he may say to the measure of Iudgement It is enough that is to say he may stay Gods wrath and punishment and God sayth he will lay him to gage and deliuer him for those that are his And vpon the fourth Chapter where it is written thus A thousand sheelds hang there that is to say in the Tower of Dauid the sayde exposition hath these words Often haue I saith the Lord taken my people in in protection for the dezert of one that was to come after a thousand generatiōs And I haue made them to succeede one after another to bring the Sheeld at the last vnto him which is the onely desyre of my Children and shal defend them better then a thousand Sheelds Also the Rabbines say That the Creatures which are growen out of king by Adams fall shall be set in their perfect state againe by the Sonne of Perets and according to their accustomed fondnesse for proofe thereof they bring in a Text of Ruth and another of Genesis where this worde Toledoth is written very plainly that is to wit with two Vaus And as thouching the sayd Sonne of Perets euery man knowes among them that it is the Messias whom they looked for to come of Iuda by his sonne Perets Concerning the calling of the Gentiles the Talmud maketh this comparison That the Horse shal be set in the stall of the halting Oxe Which wordes Rabbi Iacob and Rabbi Selomoh expound thus namely that forasmuch as the Iewes shall haue forsaken the Lawe God will put the Gentyles in their place and yet not driue them away afterward though the Iewes turne again vnto him which is a thing very farre of from the Monarchie which they imagin as oft as there is any speaking of the calling of the Gentiles To bee short the notablest of their Rabbines are ashamed of the feastings extraordinarie pastimes which the Iewes behight themselues at the comming of the Messias and conclude with Rabbi Moyses ben Maimon of whom they report that since Moyses hymselfe vntill this Moyses there was none so like vnto Moyses that the felicities and pleasures of that tyme ought to bee vnderstood according to this saying of Esayes That the earth shal be as it were ouerflowed with the knowledge of the Lord and that euery man shal be occupyed in seeking and in knowing GOD. But Rabbi Hechadoseh sayth yet more plainly That the Messias shall by his death saue Adams race and deliuer mens Soules from Hell and therefore shall bee called Sauiour Let vs yet further by reason ouercome the wilfull sort if it bée possible They hold it for an Article of their faith both by Scripture and by tradition that there shal be a Messias He that denyes that say they denyes the Lawe the Prophetes and is condemned to Helfyre And therefore say they he that denyeth the comming of the Messias cannot be saued If he which is to reigne in Israell and to giue them prosperitie bee a temporall King what skilles it me greatly whether I knowe him and beleeue in him or no or what ioy can it bee to me sith I cannot see him Nay rather what a griefe is it to mee that I shal not see him and what a peine is it to pyne away in wayting for him Ageine what goodnesse is it in GOD to haue foretold vs it if by beléeuing it we fare neuer the better yet must dye euerlastingly for not beléeuing it In the Articles of their faith they beléeue in the only one God There is greate reward in beléeuing well They beleeue a blessed lyfe As it is the Soule that beleeueth so doth the reward redound vnto her And euen so is it with all other things which are no Articles of fayth furtherfoorth than a man hath benefite by beleeuing them But as for this Article of the Messias what booted it Abraham Moyses so many Kings so many Prophetes such a nomber of people if there were no further secret in it Why was it foretold so carefully by the Prophetes Why was it so oft repeated no lesse in the prosperitie than in the aduersitie of that people and no lesse vnder the good Kings than vnder the Tyrants Nay which
that they should bee kept still and cannot conceiue to what vse the treading of them should serue but the Father knowing the goodnes of the Fruite better then the Child for he planted them tended them and proyned them considereth also that within two moonethes or little more they would wither and dry away and therefore to preserue the vertue of them he maketh no account of the eating of them but treadeth them in a Fatte to make Wyne of them And when the Child comes afterward to discretion he museth at his owne folly and acknowledgeth that at that tyme he played the very Child notwithstanding that as then he thought himselfe wyser than his Father And after the same maner doth he when he sees him make conserue of Roses of Uiolets or of other flowers He is sory to see them mard as hee thinketh and is ready to weepe for it and he cannot be quieted because he would make Nosegayes of them which anon-after would wither and he himself would cast them away by the next morrow Now consider I pray thee whither without any further inducement thou find not thy selfe too resemble this Child GOD who made the good men that which they be hath no lesse consideration and loue toward them than those which bewayle them Hee knoweth to what ende their lyfe serueth in this worlde also hee knoweth when it is time to gather them and to put to his Hooke or Sickle to cut them downe that they rotte not vppon the tree or vppon the ground and how long they may be preserued in their kinde And thinkest thou it straunge that hee should take some when they bee fresh and greene too preserue them all the yeere long or that hee should make Conserues of their flowers to bee kept a long time or that hee should of their grapes make Wyns Thinkest thou it straunge say I that he should after a sort make their sauour their sweete sent and their strength that is to say their godlines their vprightnes and their vertue too liue after them which otherwise should bee buried with them And that they which for themselues could not haue liued past three or fower yeres should liue to the benefite of the Church and the commonweale not yeres but worlds of yeeres If thou bee a Christian take for mee example the Apostles and a great nomber of the Martyrs which haue suffered persecution doest thou not euen yet still drink of that liquor of theirs doth not their constant confession make thee also to confesse Christ and their death helpe thee too the endlesse lyfe Could Ignatius and Policarpus haue liued aboue fiue or sixe yeres more than they did And yet what part of all their ages hath lasted so long or done so much good as the last halfe howre wherein they dyed Or if thou be a Heathen man consider mee the death of Socrates or of Papinian If Socrates had not droonke the iewce of Hemlocke without gilt haddest thou had those goodly discourses of his concerning the immortalitie of the Soule Or wouldest thou haue beleeued it so easely and therevpon haue bene contented to forgo thy lyfe so freely for the defence of thy Countrie or for the mayntenance of the trueth And if Papinian had not shewed how honorable a thing it is to dye for doing right and how farre the souereine magistrate is to be obeyed should we not bee bereft of a singular goodly example of stoutnesse and rightfull dealing What thing did they in all their whole lyfe either so much to their owne honour or so beneficiall to them that were to come after them as their dying in such sort Now therefore let vs say we be but babes And forasmuch as we perceiue the wisdome of our Father tâ—o bee so great whereas wee condemne him of want of skill and forasmuch as our owne ignorance is so grosse whereas wee boasted of wisedome let vs rather confesse our weakenesse in all cases than presume to doubt of his sage prouidence in any thing But Cato of Vtica would needes that God should yéeld him a reason why Caesar ouercame Pompey as who would say that the veriest rascall in the Realme should commaund the high Court of Parliament to yéeld him account why his case was ouerthrowen For all our great Quarels and Complaints are lesse before God than the least case of a poore Uillaine is afore the greatest Monark of the world Nay hee should rather haue considered that priuate States are punished by order of Lawe and Commonweales and publik States by ciuill warres And that the Commonweale of Rome was euen by his owne confession so corrupted in maners in gouernment and in the very Lawes themselues that he might haue had much iuster cause to haue doubted of Gods prouidence if after her punishing of others for the lyke things she her selfe had scaped vnpunished That the Greate men what part so euer they mainteyned were the members most infected in so much that the wisest men of that age said We see what part we ought to shun but not what part wee ought to take And that as Caesar made warre openly against his Countrie so Pompey couertly and vnder hand made his partakers too fight for the mayntenaunce of his owne ambition which was paraduenture discountenanced too the common people but could not be counterfetted before God who seeth the very bottom of our hearts Now then shall wee thinke it straunge that to the intent to shewe the common people how greatly they bée subiect to be deceyued vnder pretence of good fayth and to teache great men how fore he mistiketh that they should shrowd their leawde lustes vnder the Cloke of Iustice God should suffer Pompey to fall into the hands of his enemies And that to punish the pryde of the Senate and the whole state hée should cause their Army to bee vanquished and let them fall into the hands of their owne Countryman their naturall Subiect Nay how could God haue shewed his prouidence more manifestly than by ouerthrowing that State by her owne force which thought there was not any Power in the worlde able too punish her and by making her a bondslaue to her owne Seruant which had brought so many Citties Commonweales Kings in bondage vnto her But it may be that Caesar himselfe scapeth vnpunished Nay To shewe vnto Tyrannes that the highest step of their greatnesse is tyed to a halter and that they be but Gods scourges which he will cast into the fyre when he hath done with them within a whyle after hée was slayne miserably in the Senate when it was full And by whome Euen by those in whome hee trusted which had fought vnder his Standard against the Commonweale and which presuming them selues to haue deserued more at his hand than they had in deede meant to deserue also of the Commonweale in murthering hym Were wee now as diligent in marking the procéedings of things done in Histories as we be in noting the maner of spéeches
the body and that the Glasses are out of the Spectacles but the eysight is still good Why should we déeme the Soule to be forgone with the Sences If the eye be the thing that séeth and the eare the thing that heareth why doe wee not see things dubble and heare sounds dubble seeing we haue two eyes and two eares It is the Soule then that seeth and heareth and these which wee take to be our sences are but the instruments of our sences And if when our eyes bee shut or pickt out wee then beholde a thousand things in our mynd yea and that our vnderstanding is then most quicksighted when the quickest of our eysight is as good as quenched or starke dead how is it possible that the reasonable Soule should bee tyed and bound to the sences What a reason is it to say that the Soule dyeth with the sences séeing that the true sences do then growe and increase when the instruments of sence doe dye And what a thing were it to say that a Beast is dead because he hath lost his eyes when we our selues see that it liueth after it hath forgone the eyes Also I haue prooued that the Soule is neither the body nor an appertnance of the body Sith it is so why measure we that thing by the body which measureth al bodies or make that to dye with the body whereby the bodies that dyed yea many hundred yéeres agoe doe after a certeine maner liue still Or what can hurt that thing whom nothing hurteth or hindereth in the bodie Though a man lose an arme yet doth his Soule abide whole still Let him forgoe the one halfe of his body yet is his Soule as sound as afore for it is whole in it selfe and whole in euery part of it selfe vnited in it felfe and in the owne substance and by the force and power thereof it sheadeth it selfe into all parts of the body Though the body rot away by péecemeale yet abideth the Soule all one and vndiminished Let the blud dreyne out the mouing wex weake the sences fayle and the strength perish and yet abideth the mynd neuerthelesse sound and liuely euen to the ende Her house must bee pearced through on all sides ere she bee discouraged her walles must be battered doune ere she fall to fléeting and she neuer forsaketh her lodging till no roome be left her to lodge in True it is that the brute Beastes forgo both life and action with their blud But as for our Soule if wee consider the matter well it is then gathered home into it self and when our sences are quenched then doth it most of all labour to surmount it selfe woorking as goodly actions at the tyme that the body is at a poynt to fayle it yea and oftentymes farre goodlyer also than euer it did during the whole lifetyme thereof As for example it taketh order for it selfe for our houshold for the Commonweale and for a whole Kingdome and that with more vprightnesse godlynesse wisedome and moderation than euer it did afore yea and perchance in a body so forspeâ—â—â— so bare so consumed so withered without and so putrified within that whosoeuer lookes vpon him sees nothing but earth and yet to heare him speake would rauish a man vp to heauen yea and aboue heauen Now when a man sees so liuely a Soule in so weake and wretched a body may he not say as is said of the hatching of Chickens that the shell is broken but there commeth forth a Chicken Also let vs sée what is the ordinary cause that things perish Fire doth eyether goe out for want of nourishment or is quenched by his contrary which is water Water is resolued into aire by fire which is his contrary The cause why the Plant dyeth is extremitie of colde or drought or vnseasonable cutting or vyolent plucking vp Also the liuing wight dyeth through contrarietie of humours or for want of foode or by feeding vpon some thing that is against the nature of it or by outward vyolence Of all these causes which can we choose to haue any power against our Soule I say against the Soule of man which notwithstanding that it be vnited to matter and to a bodie is it selfe a substance vnbodily vnmateriall and only conceiuable in vnderstanding The contrarietie of things Nay what can be contrarie to that which lodgeth the contraries alike equally in himselfe which vnderstandeth the one of them by the other which coucheth them all vnder one skill and to bee short in whom the contrarieties themselues abandon their contrarietie so as they doe not any more pursewe but insewe one another Fire is hote and water cold Our bodies mislike these contraries and are gréeued by them but our mynd linketh them together without eyther burning or cooling it selfe and it setteth the one of them against the other to knowe them the better The things which destroy one another through the whole world do mainteine one another in our mynds Againe nothing is more contrary to peace then warre is and yet mans mynd can skill to make or mainteyne peace in preparing for warre and to lay earnestly for warre in seeking or inioying of peace Euen death it selfe which dispatcheth our life cannot bée contrary to the life of our Soule for it seeketh life by death and death by life And what can that thing méete withall in the whole world that may bee able to ouerthrowe it which can inioyne obedience to things most contrary What then Want of foode How can that want foode in the world which can skill to feede on the whole world Or how should that forsake foode which the fuller it is so much the hungryer it is and the more it hath digested the better able it is to digest The bodily wight feedeth vppon some certeyne things but our mynd feedeth vpon all things Take from it the sensible things and the things of vnderstanding abyde with it still bereaue it of earthly things and the heauenly remayne abundantly To be short abridge it of all worldly things yea and of the world it selfe and euen then doth it feede at greatest ease maketh best chéere agréeable to his owne nature Also the bodily wight filleth it selfe to a certeyne measure and delighteth in some certeyne things But what can fill our mynd Fill it as full as ye can with the knowledge of things and it is still eager and sharpe set to receyue more The more it taketh in the more it still craueth and yet for al that it neuer feeleth any rawnesse or lack of digestion What shall I say more discharge our vnderstanding from the mynding of it self and then doth it liue in him and of him in whom all things doe liue Againe fill it with the knowledge of it selfe and then doth it feele it self most emptie and sharpest set vpon desire of the other Now then can that dye or decay for want of foode which cannot be glutted with any thing which is nourished and mainteyned with
or in any thing that beareth life in the world In his moothers wombe he liueth the life of a Plant howbeit with this further that he hath a certeyne commencement of sence and moouing which excéede the Plant and doe put him in a readynesse to be indewed with Sences as a Beast is In this life he hath sence and mouing in their perfection which is that propertie of a sensitiue wight but yet besides these he hath also a beginning to reason and vnderstand which are a beginning of another life such as the sensitiue wight hath not this life is to be perfected in another place In the life to come he hath his actions free and full perfected a large ground to worke vppon able to suffise him to the full and a light to his vnderstanding in stead of a light to the eye And like as in comming into this world he came as it were out of another world so in going yet into another world he must also goe out of this world He commeth out of the first world into the second as it were fayling in nourishment but growing in strength vnto mouing and sence and he goeth out of the second into the third fayling in sences and mouing but growing in reason and vnderstāding Now seeing we call the passage out of the first world into the second a birth what reason is it that we should call the passage out of the second into the third a death To be short he that considereth how all the actions of mans mynd tend to the tyme to come without possibilitie of staying vppon the present time how pleasant and delightful soeuer it be we may well discerne by them all that his being which in euery thing as sayth Aristotle followeth the working thereof is also wholly bent towards the tyme to come as who would say this present life were vnto it but as a narrowe grindle on the further side whereof as it were on the banke of some streame or running water he were to finde his true dwelling place and very home in déede But now is it tyme to sée what is sayd to the contrarie wherein we haue to consider eftsoones that which we spake of afore namely that if all that euer is in vs were transitorie and mortall wee should not be so witty to examine the Immortalitie as we be for of Contraries the skill is all one If a man were not mortall that is to say if he had no lyfe he could not dispute of the mortall lyfe neither could he speake of the Immortal if he himself also were not Immortall Therefore let vs goe backe retryue Some man will say that the Soule dyeth with the body bycause the Soule and the body are but one thing and he beléeueth that they be both but one bycause he seeth no more but the body This argument is all one with theirs which denyed that there is any God bycause they sawe him not But yet by his dooings thou mayst perceyue that there is a God discerne lykewise by the dooings of thy soule that thou haste a Soule For in a dead body thou seest the same partes remayne but thou séest not the same dooings that were in it afore When a man is dead his eye seeth nothing at all and yet is there nothing chaunged of his eye but whyle hee is aliue it séeth infinite things that are dyuers The power then which séeth is not of the body Yet notwithstanding how lyuely and quickesighted so euer the eye be it séeth not it self Woonder not therefore though thou haue a soule and that the same soule sée not it self For if thyne eysight sawe itself it were not a power or abilitie of séeing but a visible thing lykewise if thy Soule sawe itself it were no more a Soule that is to say the woorker and quickener of the body but a verie body vnable to do any thing of it self and a massie substance subiect to suffering For we sée nothing but the body and bodily substances But in this thou perceiuest somewhat els than a body as I haue sayd afore that if thyne eye had any peculiar colour of it owne it could not discerne any other colour than that Seeing then that thou conceyuest so many dyuers bodies at once in imagination néeds must thou haue a power in thee which is not a body Be it say they that we haue a power of sence yet haue we not a power of reason for that which we call the power of reason or vnderstanding is nothing but an excellencie or rather a consequence of sence insomuch that when sence dyeth the residew dyeth therewith also Soothely in this which thou haste sayd thou haste surmounted sence which thing thou haddest not done if thou haddest nothing in thee beyond sence For whereas thou sayest if the sence dye the rest dyeth also it is a reason that proceedeth from one terme to another and it is a gathering of reasons which conclude one thing by another Now the sences do in deede perceyue their obiects but yet how lyuely so euer they be they reason not We sée a Smoake so farre extendeth the sence But if we inferre therefore there must needes be fire and thereupon seeke who was the kindler thereof that surmounteth the abilitie of sence We here a péece of Musicke that may any beast do as well as we But his hearing of it is but as of a bare sound whereas our hearing therof is as of an harmony and we discerne the cause of the concords and discords which either delight or offend our sence The thing that heareth the sound is the sence but the thing that iudgeth of that which the sence conceyueth is another thing than the sence The lyke is to be sayd of smelling tasting and feeling Our smelling of sents our tasting of sauours and our feeling of substances is in déede the woorke of our Sences But as for our iudging of the inward vertue of the thing by the outward sent thereof or of the wholsomnes or vnwholsomnes of foode by the taste thereof or of the whotnesse or vehemencie of a feuer by feeling the pulse yea and our procéeding euen into the very bowels of a man whether the eye beeing the quickest of all sences is not able to atteyne surely it is the woorke of a more mightie power than the sence is And in verie déede there are beasts which do here see smell taste and feele much better and quicklyer than man doth Yet notwithstanding none of them conferreth the contraries of colors sounds sents and sauours none sorteth them out to the seruing one of another or to the seruing of themselues Whereby it appeareth that man excelleth the Beasts by another power than the Sences and that whereas a man is a Peynter a Musician or a Phisition he hath it from elswhere than from his sences Nay I say further that oftentymes we conclude cleane contrarie to the report of our sences Our eye perchauce telleth vs that a Tower
garment of the mynd and the garment of the Soule is a certeyne Spirit whereby it is vnited to the bodie And this Mynd is the thing which wee call properly the Man that is to say a heauenly wight which is not to bee compared with Beastes but rather with the Gods of Heauen if he be not yet more than they The Heauenly can not come downe to the earth without leauing the Heauen but Man measureth the Heauen without remouing from the earth The earthly man then is as a mortall God and the heauenly God is as an immortall man To bee short his conlusion is That man is dubble mortall as touching his body and immortall as touching his Soule which Soule is the substantiall man and the very man created immediatly of God fayth he as the light is bred immediatly of the Sunne And Chalcidius sayth that at his death he spake these wordes I goe home againe into myne owne Countrie where my better forefathers and kinsfolk be Of Zoroastres who is yet of more antiquitie than Hermes we haue nothing but fragments Neuerthelesse many report this article to be one of his That mens Soules are immortall and that one day there shall be a generall rysing againe of their bodies and the answers of the Wise men of Chaldye who are the heires of his Doctrine doe answer sufficiently for him There is one that exhorteth men to returne with spéede to their heauenly father who hath sent them from aboue a Soule indewed with much vnderstanding and another that exhorteth them to seeke Paradise as the peculiar dwelling place of the Soule A third sayth that the Soule of man hath God as it were shut vp in it and that it hath not any mortalitie therein For sayth he the Soule is as it were dronken with God and sheweth foorth his â—â—â—uders in the harmonie of this mortall body And agayne another sayth It is a cléere fire procéeding from the power of the heauenly father an vncorruptible substance and the mainteyner of life conteyning almost all the whole world with the full plentie thereof in his bosome But one of them procéedeth yet further affirming that he which setteth his mynde vppon Godlinesse shall saue his body frayle though it bee And by those words he acknowledgeth the very glorifying of the bodie Now all these sayings are reported by the Platonists namely by Psellus and they refuse not to be acknowne that Pythagoras and Plato learned theÌ„ of the Chaldees insomuch that some think that the foresayd Hermes and Zoroastres and the residewe aforementioned are the same of whom Plato speaketh in his second Epistle and in his eleuenth booke of Lawes when he sayth that the auncient and holy Oracles are to be beléeued which affirme mens Soules to bee immortall and that in another life they must come before a Iudge that will require an account of al their doings The effect whereof commeth to this That the Soule of man procéedeth immediatly from God that is to say that the father of the bodie is one and the father of the Soule is another That the Soule is not a bodily substance but a Spirit and a light That at the departure thereof from hence it is to goe into a Paradise and therfore ought to make haste vnto death And that it is so farre from mortalitie that it maketh euen the body immortall What can wee say more at this day euen in the tyme of light wherein we be Pherecydes the Syrian the first that was knowne among the Greekes to haue written in prose taught the same And that which Virgill sayth in his second Eglog concerning the Drug or Spice of Assyria and the growing thereof euerywhere is interpreted of some men to bée ment of the Immortalitie of the Soule the doctrine whereof Pherecydes brought from thence into Greece namely that it should be vnderstood euerywhere throughout the whole world Also Phocylides who was at the same time speaketh therof in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say The Soule of man immortall is and neuer weares away With any age or length of tyme but liueth fresh for ay And againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Remnants which remaine of men vnburied in the graue Become as Gods and in the Heauens a life most blessed haue For though their bodies turne to dust as dayly we doe see Their Soules liue still for euermore from all corruption free And in another place he sayes agayne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We hope that we shall come agayne Out of the earth to light more playne And if ye aske him the cause of all this he will answer you in another verse thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because the Soule Gods instrument and Image also is Which saying he seemeth to haue taken out of this verse of Sibils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In very reason Man should bee The Image and the shape of mee Of the same opinion also are Orpheus Theognis Homer Hesiodus Pindar and all the Poets of old tyme which may answer both for themselues and their owne Countries and for the residue of their ages Likewise Pythagoras a disciple of Pherecides held opinion that the Soule is a bodylesse and immortall substance put into this body as into a Prison for sinning And whereas the fléeting of soules out of one body into another is fathered vpon him although the opinion be not directly against the immortalitie of the Soule yet doe many men thinke that hee hath wrong doone vnto him And his Disciple Timoeus of Locres reporteth otherwyse of him For what punishment were it to a voluptuous man to haue his Soule put into a beast that he might become the more voluptuous without remorse of sinne Soothly it is all one as if in punishment of Murder or theft yée would make the Murderer to cut the throtes of his owne Father and Mother or the Théef to commit trecherie ageinst God Howsoeuer the case stand he teacheth in his verses that man is of heauenly race and that as Iamblichus reporteth he is set in this world to behold God And his Disciple Architas sayth that God breathed reason and vnderstanding into him Likewise Philolaus affirmeth that the Diuines and Prophets of old time bare record that the Soule was cuppled with the body for hir sinnes and buryed in the same as in a Graue Of Epicharmus we haue this saying If thou beest a good man in thy heart Death can doe thee no harme for thy Soule shall liue happyly in heauen c. Also of Heraclides we haue this saying We liue the Death of them that is to say of the blessed his meaning is that we be not buried with our bodyes and we dye their Lyfe that is to say wee bee still after this body of ours is dead Of the like opinion are Thales Anaxagoras and Diogenes concerning this poynt yea and so is Zeno too howbeit that he thought the Soule to bee
begotten of Man wherein hee was contrarie too himselfe To bée short scarsly were there any to be found among the men of old time saue onely Democritus and Epicurus that held the contrary way whome the Poete Lucre immitated afterward in his verses Yet notwithstanding when Epicurus should dye hée commaunded an Anniuersarie or Yéermynd to bee kept in remembrance of hym by his Disciples so greatly delighted hée in a vayne shadowe of Immortalite hauing shaken off the very thing it self And Lucrece as it is written of him made his booke béeing mad at such times as the fittes of his madnesse were off him surely more mad when he thought himselfe wysest than when the fits of his phrensie were strongest vppon him Whosoeuer readeth the goodly discourses of Socrates vpon his drinking of poyson as they bee reported by Plato and Xenophon hymselfe can not doubt of his opiniō in this case For he not only beléeued it himself but also perswaded many men to it with liuely reasons yea and by his own death much more then by all his lyfe And so ye see we be come vnto Plato and Aristotle with consent of all the wyse men of olde tyme vngeinsayd of any sauing of a two or thrée malapert wretches whom the vngraciousest of our dayes would esteeme but as dronken sottes and dizards Certesse Plato who might paraduenture haue heard speake of the bookes of Moyses doeth in his Timaeus bring in God giuing commaundement to the vndergoddes whom he created that they should make man both of mortall and of immortall substances Wherein it may be that he alluded to this saying in Genesis Let vs make man after our owne Image and lykenesse In which case the Iewes say that GOD directed his spéeche to his Angels but our Diuines say hee spake to himselfe But anon after both in the same booke and in many other places Plato as it were comming to him himselfe ageine teacheth that GOD created Man by himselfe yea and euen his Lyuer and his Brayne and all his Sences that is to say the Soule of him not onely indewed with reason and vnderstanding but also with sence and abilitie of growing and increasing and also the instruments whereby the same doe woorke Moreouer hee maketh such a manifest difference betwéene the Soule and the body as that hee matcheth them not toogither as matter and forme as Aristottle doth but as a Pilot and a Ship a Commonweale and a Magistrate an Image and him that beareth it vpon him What greater thing can there be than to be like God Now sayth Plato in his Phoedon The Soule of Man is very like the Godhead Immortall Reasonable Vniforme Vndissoluble and euermore of one sorte which are conditions saith he in his matters of State that can not agree but to things most diuine And therefore at his departing out of the world he willed his Soule to returne home too her kinred and to her first originall that is to wit as hée himselfe sayth there to the wyse and immortall Godhead the Fountaine of all goodnes as called home from banishment into her owne natiue countrie He termeth it ordinarily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say of kin vnto God and consequently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Euerlasting and of one selfesame name with the immortall ones a Heauenly Plant and not a Earthly rooted in Heauen and not in Earth begotten from aboue and not héere beneath and finally such as cannot dye heere forasmuch as it liueth still in another place To be short séeing sayeth he that it comprehendeth the things that are Diuine and immortall that is to wit the Godhead and the things that are vnchaungeable and vncorruptible as trueth is it cannot be accounted to be of any other nature than they The same opinion doth Plutarche also attribute vnto him which appeareth almost in euery leafe of his writings As touching the auncienter sort of Platonists they agree all with one accord in the immortalitie of the soule sauing that some of them deriue it from God and some from the Soule of the World some make but the Reason or mynd onely to be immortall and some the whole Soule which disagreement may well be salued if we say that the Soule all whole together is immortall in power or abilitie though the execution and performance of the actions which are to be doone by the body be forgone with the instruments or members of the body The disagréement concerning this poynt among such as a man may voutsafe to call by the name of Philosophers séemeth to haue begonne at Aristotle howbeit that his Disciples count it a commendation to him that he hath giuen occasion to doubt of his opinion in that behalfe For it is certeine that his newfound doctrine of the Eternitie or euerlastingnesse of the World hath distroubled his brayne in many other things as commonly it falleth out that one error bréedeth many other Because nature sayth he could not make euery man particularly to continue for euer by himself therefore she continueth him in the kind by matching Male and Female together This is spoken either grossely or doubtfully But whereas he sayth that if the Mynd haue any inworking of it owne without any helpe of the Sences or of the body it may also continue of it selfe concluding thereuppon that then it may also be separated from the body as an immortal thing from a thing that is transitorie and mortall It followeth consequently also that the Soule may haue continuance of it selfe as whereof he vttereth these words namely That the Soule commeth from without and not of the seede of Man as the body doth and that the Soule is the onely part in vs that is Diuine Now to be Diuine and to be Humane to be of séede and to be from without that is to say from GOD are things flat contratrie whereof the one sort is subiect to corruption and the other not In the tenth booke of his Moralls he acknowledgeth two sorts of lyfe in man the one as in respect that he is composed of Body and Soule the other as in respect of Mynd onely the one occupied in the powres which are called humane and bodily which is also accompanyed with a felicitie in this lyfe and the other occupied iu the vertues of the mynd which is accompanied also with a felictie in another lyfe This which consisteth in contemplation is better than the other and the felicitie thereto belonging is peculiarly described by him in his bookes of Heauen aboue Tyme as which consisteth in the franke and frée working of the Mynd in beholding the souereine God And in good sooth full well doeth Michael of Ephesus vppon this saying of his conclude that the Soule is immortall and so must al his morals also néedes do considering that too liue wel whether it be to a mans selfe or towards other men were els a vaine thing and to no purpose
now euerlasting sayth he and in the best state berest of this earthly baggage which was none of his set free to himselfe For these bones these sinewes this coate of skin this face and these seruiceable hands are but fetters and prisons of the Soule By them the Soule is ouerwhelmed beaten downe and chased away It hath not a greater batterll than with that masse of flesh For feare of being torne in peeces it laboureth to returne from whence it came where it hath readie for it an happie and euerlasting rest And agayn This Soule cannot be made an Outlaw for it is a kin to the Gods equall to the whole world and to all tyme and the thought or conceyt thereof goeth about the whole Heauen extending it self from the beginning of al tyme to the vttermost poynt of that which is to come The wretched coarse being the Iayle setters of the Soule is tossed to and fro Vpon that are tormeÌ„ts murthers and diseases executed As for the Soule it is holy and euerlasting and cannot bee layd hand on When it is out of this body it is at libertie and set free from all bondage and is coÌ„uersant in that beautifull place wheresoeuer it be which receyueth mens Soules into the blessed rest thereof as soone as they bee deliuered from hence To bee short he seemeth to pricke very nere to the rysing againe of the dead For in a certeyne Epistle to Lucilius his words are these Death wherof we be so much afrayd doth not bereue vs of life but only discontinew it for a tyme and a day will come that shall bring vs to light agayne This may suffise to giue vs knowledge of the opinion of that great personage in whom wee see that the more he grewe in age the nerer he came still to the true birth For in his latest bookes he treateth alwaies both more assuredly and more euideÌ„tly therof Also the saying of Phauorinus is notable There is nothing great on earth sayth he but Man and nothing great in Man but his Soule If thou mount vp thether thou mouÌ„test aboue Heauen And if thou stoope downe agayne to the bodie and compare it with the Heauen it is lesse than a Flye or rather a thing of nothing At one word this is as much to say as that in this clod of clay there dwelleth a diuine and vncoruptible nature for how could it els be greater than the whole world As touching the Nations of old tyme we reade of them all that they had certeyne Religions and diuine Seruices so as they beléeued that there is a Hell and certeyne fieldes which they call the Elysian fields as we see in the Poets Pindarus Diphilus Sophocles Euripides others The more supersticious that they were the more sufficiently doe they witnesse vnto vs what was in their Conscience For true Religion and Superstition haue both one ground namely the Soule of man and there could be no Religion at all if the Soule liued not when it is gone hence Wee reade of the Indians that they burned themselues afore they came to extreme oldage terming it the letting of men loose and the fréeing of the Soule from the bodie and the sooner that a man did it the wiser was he estéemed Which custome is obserued still at this day among the people that dwell by the Riuer Niger otherwise called the people of Senega in Affricke who offer themselues willingly to be buryed quicke with their Maisters All the demonstrations of Logicke and Mathematicke sayth Zeno haue not so much force to proue the immortalitie of the soule as this only doing of theirs hath Also great Alexander hauing taken prisoners ten of their Philosophers whom they call Gimnosophists asked of one of them to trye their wisedome whether there were moâ—men aliue or dead The Philosopher answered that there were moe aliue Because sayd he there are none dead Ye may wel think they gaue a drye mocke to all the arguments of Aristotle and Callisthenes which with all their Philosophie had taught their scholer Alexander so euill Of the Thracians we reade that they sorrowed at the birth of men and reioyced at the death of them yea euen of their owne chidren And that was because they thought that which wee call death not to be a death in déede but rather a very happie birth And these be the people whom Herodotus reporteth to haue bene called the Neuerdying Getes and whom the Greekes called the Neuerdying Getes or Thracians Who were of opinion that at their departing out of this world they went to Zamolxis or Gebeleizie that is to say after the interpretation of the Getish or Gotish tongue to him that gaue them health saluation or welfare and gathered them together The like is sayd of the Galles chiefly of the inhabiters about Marsilles and of their Druydes of the Hetruscians and their Bishops and of the Scythians and their Sages of whom all the learning and wisedome was grounded vpon this poynt For looke how men did spread abroad so also did this doctrine which is so déeply printed in man that he cannot but carie it continually with him Which thing is to bee seene yet more in that which wee reade concerning the hearers of Hegesias the Cyrenian who dyed willingly after they had heard him discourse of the state of mens Soules after this life and likewise concerning Cleombrotus the Ambraciote who slewe himselfe when he had read a certeyne treatise of the immortalitie of the Soule For had it not bene a doctrine most euident to mans wit they would neuer haue bin caried so farre by it as to the hurting of their bodies And if among so many people there be perchaunce some fewe wretched caytifes that haue borne themselues on hand the contrarie which thing neuerthelesse they could neuer yet fully perswade themselues to be out of all doubt or question surely wee may beléeue that they had very much adoe and were vtterly besotted like Drunkards afore they could come to that poynt so as wee may well say of them as Hierocle the Pythagorist sayde namely That the wicked would not haue their Soules to bee immortall to the intent they might not be punished for their faults But yet that they preuent the sentence of their Iudge by condemning themselues vnto death afore hand But if they wil neither heare God nor the whole world nor themselues let them at leastwise hearken to the Deuill as well as they doe in other things who as sayth Plutark made this answer to Corax of Naxus and others in these verses It were a great wickednesse for thee to say The Soule to be mortall or for to decay And vnto Polytes he answered thus As long as the Soule to the body is tyde Though loth yet all sorowes it needes must abyde But when fro the body Death doth it remoue To heauen by and by then it styes vp aboue And there euer youthfull in blisse it doth rest
but a dealing with Byâ—es Botches and Cankers whereof if we haue no feeling they can to go the best way doe vs no good and if wee haue feeling they woorke vs nothing but sorrowe grife stinch and lothsomnesse â— Yea but the happines or felicitie is in healing them Happy then is that comonweale which receiueth good by thy peyne but not thy peyne happy which thou hast taken to heale it For when a Phisicion healeth a man who receiues the benefite the Phisicion or the Patient And if the Phicion did his Cure for gaine and the Magistrate his duetyâ— for honour who sees not that the skill of curing was not the end of the one nor the skill of gouerning the end of the other séeing that they tended either of them to a further end and that so â—â—lie aone Notwithstanding all this in the end Man dyeth and the World perisheth but the Soule liueth still and yet giueth ouer the dealings of the world Therefore néedes must some other thing then Policy be our souerein good seeing that this Policy is limited within the bounds of this world Now then let vs examine Wisdome It is the beholding of God and of things belonging to GOD. This requireth a man to lift vp himselfe aboue the world and aboue himselfe I meane that a man should retyre from all outward things into his owne soule the Soule vnto her Mynd and the Mynd vnto God Surely there is great lykelyhod that our dooings ought to bee referred to this wisdome and that our end and welfare should consist therein For the perfecting of such a contemplation wee say there are required Wealth Health Uertue and Policie For want and pouertie bée as Fetters of Yron to a weldisposed mynd a sickely and diseased body is as a torture to it vnruly affections dazle it and make it sée one thing for another Policie is the stablisher of Comonweales whosoeuer giueth himself to contemplation it behoueth him to be settled in a quiet place that he may hold the Plommet of his mind steddy without shaking or stirring Thus doe all things séeme to serue to that vse But when they come all to the forenamed poynt to helpe vs yet I pray you how farre doe they further vs It is naturally bred in man to beléeue that there is a GOD and his woorkes doe put vs in mynd of it euery howre But shall we enter into our woorkemayster séeing that the very outside of the least of all his workes doth stoppe vs Again who knoweth not that if there be not a God there can bee no happines atall And sith wee knowe it euen as ye would say from our birth why take we so much peine in seeking that which wee haue alreadie Reason telleth vs further that God is good and iust that is to say that he loueth that which is good hateth that which is euill And our owne conscience telleth vs that we doe little good or none but much euil And if the little good which we doo be doone amisse what happines is there or rather what vnhappines is there not in that knowledge which maketh vs to feele a continuall torment in our selues But the partie that is giuen too contemplation mounteth vp yet higher and considereth that God is immortall vnchangeable and not to be wrought into which is as much to say as that he is not as we men are who doe dye moue and chaunge and when hee comes to that poynt he is at the highest that his wit can reach vnto And what is all this stying vp but a creeping still vppon the earth For to say that of a thing which it is not or to say it is not this or it is not that what els is it but a protesting that we knowe not what it is as if a man should boast that hee knowes an Elephant vndr pretence that hee knowes it is not a Snayle What then is our highest contemplation but déepe ignorance And who would make ignorance his highest felicitie furthest end or shooteanker Yet notwithstanding how feawe be there which atteine so farre And if any through rashnes aduenture any further 〈◊〉 what error and blyndnesse doe they fall no lesse than they which forgo their fight by looking against the Sunne It remaineth then in the end that wee must atteine to that by Fayth which wee cannot atteyne vnto by Reason that wée must mount vp by liuely beléef aboue our vnderstaÌ„ding vnto the things whereunto the eye of our mynd is not able to reach And Algazell the Arabian procéeded so farre as to say that the roote wherby the felicitie to come is atteind vnto is faith And what is this fayth in God but a beléeuing that our welfare lyeth in him What is the beléeuing but the hoping for it What is hope but the desiring of it What is the desire of it but the not hauing of it And to bee short what is the continuall beléef of it héere but a bewraying that héere we can neither haue it nor see it If we haue not faith what haue we but ignorance And if we haue faith what haue wee but onely a desire and longing considering that the greater our fayth is the more wee despise these bace things and the greater our desire is the more we hate our selues and the more earnestly doe we loue God To be short What is fayth Welfare behighted But we would sée it Again what is faith The way vnto felicitie But we would possesse and inioy it Looke then what proportion is betwéene that which is present and that which is to come such proportion is there betwixt the hope which we haue heere yea euen aboue the world and aboue our selues and the perfect and full fruition of the good which we seeke to atteine vnto But let vs in feaw words gather togither what wee haue said heretofore Whereas wee seeke for an ende or restingpoint the world is made for man man for the Soule the Soule for the mynd the mynd for a much higher thing than it self and what els can that be but God As for that which we vnderstand here as concerning God by our naturall wisdome it is but ignorance and that which we conceiue by our supernaturall power 〈◊〉 but beléefe and beleefe maketh not things perfect but only moueth the vnderstanding It followeth then that our doings can haue no end to rest vpon here but only in the life to come which is the beholding and knowing of God Againe if wee seeke the souereine good our appetites owe obedience to our will our will to our reason and the perfection of our reason is the knowing of God And so the contentment of our will is our possessing of God Now we possesse not God but so farre foorth as wee loue him we loue him not but so farre foorth as we knowe him and neither can ignorance ingender earnest loue nor beleefe ingender full and perfect fruition but onely a certeyne hope which hope is
Preachers of the comming of the Mediator and witnesses of the antiquitie trueth and vncorruptnes of the Prophestes ageinst the effect whereof neuerthelesse they set themselues with all their power For what better witnesses I pray you could the Gentyles haue than the Iewes themselues namely in that they being the putters of Iesus and of his disciples to death were ready notwithstanding to dye for the trueth soundnesse of the bookes wherein he was foreshewed foretold and fore-promised vnto them at all tymes Furthermore that this King promised by the Prophetes and the Sibyls should deliuer the Law of good lyfe to the whole world Cicero séemeth to haue had some vnderstanding howsoeuer he came by it or els I caÌ„not tell wherto I should apply this goodly sentence of his in his third booke of his Commonweale Soothly the very Lawe in deede sayth he is right reason shed into all men constant euerlasting which calleth all men to their duetie by commaunding and frayeth them from fraud by forbidding which yet notwithstanding neither biddeth nor forbiddeth in vayne to the good nor by bidding or forbidding moueth the bad From this lawe may nothing be taken to it may nothing be put neither may it be wholy abrogated Neither Senate nor Pope can discharge vs of this Lawe neither needeth there any interpreter or expounder thereof to make it playne There shall not bee one Lawe at Rome and another at Athens one tooday and another toomorrowe But one selfesame Lawe being both euerlasting and vnchaungeable shall conteyne all Nations and at all tymes and there shall be but one common mayster and commaunder of all euen God He is the deuiser the discusser and the giuer of this Lawe which who will not obey shall flee from himselfe as if he disdeined to be a man which dooing of his must needes be a sore punishment vnto him though hee were sure to scape all other punishments Who seeth not here that this Heathen man espyed that all Lawes of man are but vanitie and that he looked that God himselfe should come openly into the sight of the world to giue a good lawe to Mankind Now Iesus hath manifestly giuen this Lawe causing it to be published by his Apostles and their voyce sounded to the vttermost bounds of the earth And for proof hereof what is more conuenient and meete for man in the iudgement of conscience than to loue God with all his heart and all his Soule and his neighbour as himself which yet notwithstanding doth more surmount our abilitie to performe and more bewray our corruption and more condemne whatsoeuer is in vs of our owne than doth the Lawe it selfe vniuersally in all mankind On the contrarie part what find we in all the writings of the Heathen but a Hireling vertue and a teaching to cloke vice that is to say Hipocrisie But as this Lawe is verily of God so let vs see whether the bringer thereof bee God And I beseech all worldly wise men not to hearken vnto mee by halues nor to looke vpon things at a glaunce for I come not to daly with them but to yeeld mée both their eares and to looke wistly to bend all their wits aduisedly for the néerer they looke vnto the matter the more deliberatly they consider of it the sooner will they yeeld to our doctrine as to the vndoubted trueth yea as to very nature it self Iesus therefore is borne in the little Countrie of Iewrie subdewed by the Romaines of poore parents in a sorie Uillage destitute of friends and of all worldly helpes and yet was he to be Emperour of the whole world to giue the Law to the whole world Let vs see the procéeding of this Emperour of his Empyre Amend sayth he and beleeue the Gospell for the kingdome of Heauen is at hand If we consider the maiestie of the Romaine Empyre the eloquence and learning of the great Clerks and the pride of the Sophists and Orators of that tyme what greater fondnesse could there be to all seeming than to talke after that maner Who would not haue thought folly both in Christ and in his Apostles for their preaching so But what addeth he Whosoeuer wil come into this kingdome let him forsake goodes father moother wife children yea and himselfe too And let him take vp his Crosse and followe me Let him thinke himself happie that he may suffer a thousand miseries for me and that in the end he may dye for my names sake What maner of priuiledges are these I beseech you to drawe people into that kingdome What a hope is it for them that serue him What are these promises of his but threatnings and his perswasioÌ„s but disswasions What say we to a friend whom we turne from some other man but thus eschewe that mans companie for ye shall haue nothing with him but trauell and trouble And what worse could the veriest enemies of his doctrine say than he himselfe sayd Also what a saying of his was this to S. Paule a man of reputation among the Pharisies and greatly imployed afore in following the world I wil shew thee how great things thou hast to indure for my names sake And yet notwithstanding what a sodeyne chaunge insewed from apprehending and imprisoning to bee apprehended and imprisoned from being a Iudge to be whipped and scourged from stoning of others to death to offer himselfe from Citie to Citie to bee stoned for the name of Iesus Let vs heare on the contrarie part the voyce of a worldly Conquerour Whosoeuer will followe me sayth Cyrus to the Lacedemonians if he be a footman I will make him a Horseman if he bee a Horseman I will giue him a Charyot if he haue a Manor I will giue him a Towne if he haue a Towne I wil giue him a Citie if he haue a Citie I will giue him a Countrie and as for Gold he shall haue it by weight and not by tale What â—ddes is there betwéene the spéeches of these two Monarkes and much more betwéene their Conquests And therefore what comparison can there bee betwixt the Conquerours themselues This Cyrus as great an Emperour as he was could not haue the Lacedemonians to serue him for all his great offers But Iesus being poore abiect and vnregarded did by his rigorous threats euen after his own suffering of reprochfull death and his manacing of the like to his followers drawe all people and Nations vnto him and not only Souldyers but also Emperours nor only Cities but also whole Empyres Cyrus dyed in conquering and Iesus conquered by dying The death of Cyrus decayed his owne kingdome as a bodie without a soule But the death of Iesus inlarged his kingdome euen ouer the Empyres And how could that haue bene but that the death of Iesus was the life of all Empyres and all Kingdomes Who seeth not then in the mightinesse of the one a humaine weakenesse and in the weakenesse of the other a diuine mightinesse Wee woonder
with the same mouing then doth it vndoutedly moue therewithall Nay contrariwise whether the mynd rest or whether it be buzyed about the proper operations thereof it is not perceiued eyther by any panting of hart or by any beating of pulses or by any breathing of Lungs It is then as a Shippe that carieth vs away with it whether we walke or sit still the stickingfast whereof or the tying thereof to a poste hindereth not our going vp and downe in it still Ageine if the Soule be subiect to the finall corruption of the body then is it subiect to the alterations thereof also and if it be subiect to the alterations it is subiect to tyme also For alterations or chaunges are spices or rather consequents of mouing and moouings are not made but in tyme. Now man in respect of the body hath certeine full poynts or stoppes at the which he receiueth manifest chaunges and thereafter groweth or decayeth But commonly where the decay of the body beginneth there beginneth the cheef strength of the mynd Houbeit that in some men not only their chinnes are couered with downe but also their beards become gray whose minds for want of exercise shewe no signe at all either of rypenesse or growing Moreouer time as in respect of the body cannot be called ageyne but in respect of the mynd it is alwayes present Yea and tyme perfecteth accomplisheth and increaseth our mynd and after a sort reneweth and refressheth it from day to day whereas contrarywise it forweareth wassheth away and quight consumeth both it self and the body with the life thereof It followeth then that the reasonable Soule is not subiect to time nor consequently to any of the chaunges and corruptions that accompanye tyme. Nay we may say thus much more That nothing in the whole World is nurrished with things better than itself neither dooth any of them conteyne greater things than itself But the things that are corruptible do liue of corruptible things and cannot liue without corrupting them as for example beasts liue by herbes men by beasts and sofoorth And therefore things which liue by vncorruptible things and can so receiue and digest them as to turne them into the nurrishment of their nature and yet not corrupt them are vncorruptible them selues to Now the Soule of man I meane the reasonable soule or mynd conceiueth reason and trueth and is fed and strengthened with them And reason trueth are things vnchaungeable not subiect to tyme place or alteration but stedye vnchaungeable and euerlasting For that twice two be fower and that there is the same reason in the proportion of eight vnto six that is of fower vnto three or that in a Tryangle the three inner angles are equall with the too ryght angles and such like are truethes which neither yeeres nor thousands of yeeres can change as true at this day as they were when Euclyde first spake them And so foorth of other things It followeth then that the Soule comprehending reason and trueth which are things free from corruption cannot in any wyse be subiect to corruption Agein who is he of all men that desireth not to be immortall And how could any man desire it if he vnderstoode not what it is Or how could he be able to vnderstand it vnlesse it were possible for him to atteyne vnto it Surely none of vs coueteth to be beginninglesse for none of vs is so neither can any of vs be so And as we cannot so be so also can we not comprehend what it is For who is he that is not at his witts end but only to think vppon eternitie without beginning On the contrarie part there is not so bace a mynd which coueteth not to liue for euer insomuch that wheras we looke not for it by nature we seeke to obteyne it by skill and pollicie some by bookes some by Images and some by other deuices and euen the grossest sort can well imagine in themselues what immortalitie is and are able both to conceyue it and to beleeue it Whence comes this but that our soules beeing created cannot conceiue an euerlastingnesse without beginning and yet neuerthelesse that forasmuch as they be created immortal they doe wel conceiue an immortalitie or euerlastingnes without end And whereto serues this vniuersall desire if it be not naturall or how is it naturall if it be in vaine and not onely in vayne but also too bring vs to Hell and to Torment Let vs wade yet déeper Who can dispute or once so much as doubt whether the Soule bee immortall or no but he that is capable of immortalitie And who can vnderstand what difference is betwixt mortall and immortall but hee that is immortall Man is able to discerne the difference betwéene that which is reason and that which is not and therevpon wee terme him reasonable Whosoeuer would hold opinion that a man is not reafonable should neede none other disproofe than his owne disputing thereof for he would go about to proue it by reason Man can skill to discerne the mortall natures from the immortall And therefore we may well say he is immortall For hee that should dispute to the contrarie shal be driuen to bring such reasons as shall of themselues make him to prooue himselfe immortall Thou sayest the Soule can not be immortall and why Because sayest thou that to be so it would behoue it to woorke seuerally by it selfe froÌ„ the body When thou thinkest that in thy mynd consider what thy body dooth at the same tyme. Nay yet further who hath taught thee so much of the immortall nature if thou thy selfe be nor immortall Or what worldly wight can say what the inwoorking of a reasonable wight is but the wight which in it selfe hath the vse of reason Yet sayest thou still if the Soule be immortall it is frée from such and such passions How enterest thou so farre into the Nature that is so farre aboue thée if thou thy selfe beest mortall All the reasons which thou alledgest against the immortalitie of the soule doe feight directly to the proofe of it For if thy reason mounted no higher than to the things that are mortall thou shouldest knowe neither mortall nor immortall Now it is not some one couetous man aboue all other that desireth immortalitie nor some one man excelling all others in wisdome that comprehendeth it but al mankind without exception It is not then some one seuerall skill or some one naturall propertie that maketh such difference betwéene man and man as we sée to be betwéene many but rather one selfesame nature common to all men whereby they be all maâ—â— to differ from other liuing wights which by no deede doe shewe any desire too ouerliue themselues ne know how to liue therefore their Lyues doe vanish away with their bloud and is extinguished with their bodies If euer thou hast looked to dye consider what discourse thou madest then in thy mynd thou couldest neuer perswade thy conscience nor make thy reason
to conceiue that thy Soule should dye with the Body but euen in the selfesame tyme when it disputeth ageinst it selfe it shifteth it self I wote not how from all thy conclusions and falleth too consider in what state it shall bee and where it shal become when it is out of the body The Epicure that hath disputed of it all his lyfe long when he commeth to death bequeatheth a yerely pension for the keeping of a yéerely feast on the day of his birth I pray you to what purpose serue feastings for the birth of a Swyne séeing he estéemeth himselfe to be no better than so Nay what els is this than a crying out of his Nature against him which with one word confuteth all his vaine arguments Another laboureth by all meanes possible to blot out in himselfe the opinion of immortalitie and bicause he hath liued wickedly in this world he will néedes beare himselfe on hand that there is no Iustice in the world tocome But then is the tyme that his owne nature waketh and starteth vp as it were out of the bottome of a water and at that instant painteth againe before his eyes the selfsame thing which he tooke so much paynes to deface And in good sooth what a number haue wee seene which hauing bene despisers of all ReligioÌ„ haue at the hower of death bin glad to vow their Soules to any Sainct for releefe so cléere was then the presence of the life to come before their eyes I had leuer sayd Zeno to see an Indian burne himselfe chéerefully than to heare al the Philosophers of the world discoursing of the immortalitie of the Soule and in very déede it is a much stronger and better concluded argument Nay then let vs rather say I had leuer see an Atheist or an Epicure witnessing the immortalitie of the Soule and willingly taking an honorable farewell of nature vpon a Scaffold than to heare all the Doctors of the world discoursing of it in their Pulpits For whatsoeuer the Epicures say there they speake it aduisedly and as ye would say fresh and fasting wheras all that euer they haue spoken all their life afore is to bee accounted but as the wordes of Drunkards that is to wit of men besotted and falne asléepe in the delights and pleasures of this world where the Wine and the excesse of meate and the vapors that fumed vp of them did speake and not the men themselues What shall I say more I haue tolde you alreadie that in the inward man there are as ye would say thrée men the liuing the sensitiue and the reasonable Let vs say therefore that in the same person there are thrée liues continued from one to another namely the life of the Plant the life of the Beast and the life of the Man or of the Soule So long as a man is in his moothers wombe he doth but only liue and growe his Spirit seemeth to sléepe and his sences seeme to bee in a slumber so as he seemeth to bee no thing els than a Plant. Neuerthelesse if ye consider his eyes his eares his tongue his sences and his mouings you will easely iudge that he is not made to be for euer in that prison where he neither seeth nor heareth nor hath any roome to walke in but rather that he is made to come forth into an opener place where he may haue what to see and behold and wherewith to occupye al the powers which wee see to bee in him As soone as he is come out he beginneth to see to féele and to moue and by little and little falleth to the perfect vsing of his limbes and findeth in this world a peculiar obiect for euery of them as visible things for the eye sounds for his hearing bodily things for his feeling and so forth But besides all this we finde there a mynd which by the eyes as by windowes beholdeth the world and yet in al the world finding not any one thing woorthy to rest wholly vppon mounteth vp to him that made it which mynd like an Empresse lodgeth in the whole world and not alonly in this body which by the sences and oftentymes also without the sences mounteth aboue the sences and streyneth it self to goe out of it selfe as a child doth to get out of his mothers wombe And therefore wee ought surely to say that this Mynd or Reason ought not to bee euer in prison That one day it shall see cléerely and not by these dimme and clowdie spectacles That it shall come in place where it shall haue the true obiect of vnderstanding and that he shall haue his life free from these fetters and from all the affections of the body To be short that as man is prepared in his moothers wombe to be brought foorth into the world â—o is he also after a sort prepared in this body and in this world to liue in another world We then vnderstand it when by nature it behoueth vs to depart out of the world And what child is there which if nature did not by her cunning driue him out would of himself come out of his Couert or that commeth not out as good as forlorne and halfe dead or that if he had at that tyme knowledge spéech would not call that death which we call birth and that a departure out of life which we call the enterance into it As long as we be there we see nothing though our eyes be open Many also doe not so much as stirre except it bee at some sodaine scaring or some other like chaunce and as for those that stirre they knowe not that they haue eyther sence or mouing Why then should wee thinke it straunge that in this life our vnderstanding seeth so little that many men do neuer mynd the immortall nature vntill they be at the last cast yea and some thinke not themselues to haue any such thing howbeit that euen by so thinking they shew themselues to haue part thereof And imagine wee that the vnborne babe hath not as much adoe by nature to leaue the poore skinne that he is wrapt in as we haue hinderance in our sences and in our imprisoned reason when we be at the poynt to leaue the goods and pleasures of this world and the very flesh it selfe which holdeth vs as in a graue Or had the babe some little knowledge would he not say that no life were comparable to the life where he then is as we say there is no life to the life of this world wherein we be Or would he not account the stage of our sences for a fable as a great sort of vs account the stage that is prepared for our Soules Yes surely and therfore let vs conclude where wee began namely that man is both inward and outward In the outward man which is the bodie he resembleth the béeing and the proportion of all the parts of the world And in the inner man he resembleth whatsoeuer kyâ—nd of life is in all things
beléeue the things which they themselues did to be wondered at and woorshipped of the common people And thus much concerning their Gods in generall But if wee come to the particulars the matter will bee yet more cléere wherein I will bee as briefe as I can because it is a matter that is treated of expressely by others Among the innumerable rable of Gods they haue twelue of principall renowme whose names are comprehended in these two verses of Ennius Iuno Vesta Minerua Ceres Diana Venus Mars Mercurius Iupiter Neptune Vulcanus Apollo And vnto these some added Bacchus and Saturne this latter because he might seeme to haue wrong if he should not be counted a God as well as his sonne and the other because it might come to passe that being a firie fellowe he would els make some fray seeing that Ceres is a Goddesse To dispatch the chiefe of them quite and cleane of that doubt Euhemere of Messene will alone suffice who gathering the historie of Iupiter and the rest setteth downe their tytles Epitaphs Inscriptions which were in their Temples namely in the Temple of Iupiter Triphillian where was a piller set vp by Iupiter himself whereon the notablest of his doings were ingrauen And this historie being called holy was translated by Ennius the words whereof are these Saturne sayth he tooke Ops to his wife and Tytan being his elder brother claymed the kingdome but Vesta their mother Ceres and Ops their Sisters counseled Saturne to keepe his possession Which thing when Tytan perceyued finding himselfe to bee the weaker he compounded with Saturne vpon conditiō that if Saturne had any Sonnes he should not suffer them to liue that the kingdom might reuert again vnto his Children According to which composition the first child that was borne to Saturne was killed Afterward were borne Iupiter Iuno twinnes both at one birth of whome they shewed but Iuno and deliuered Iupiter to Vesta to be brought vp in secret After them came Neptune who was serued likewise And last of all came Pluto and Glauca of whom only Glauca who dyed within a while was shewed and Pluto was nurced secretly as Iupiter was Now this came to Tytans hearing who assembling his Sonnes to him took Saturne and Ops and put them in prison But assoone as Iupiter came to age he gaue battell to the Tytans and getting the vpper hand of them deliuered his father mother out of prison At length perceyuing that his father whom he had set vp againe was iealous ouer him and sought his life he deposed him from his estate and droue him into Italy In this only one historie we sée what Saturne Iupiter Iuno Vesta Ops Neptune and Ceres were that is to wit men and women yea surely euen men and among men but onely mere men And yet were they the fathers and mothers of the rest of the Gods and reigned in the Iles of the chiefe Midland Sea and in Candy a litle afore the warres of Thebes and of Troy And by that meanes wee see also from whence the Poets haue fetched their fables which are not as some thinke mere fancies or imaginations without ground but disguising of the trueth and of the Historie True in that they report déedes rightly beseeming men vntrue in that they attribute them as to Gods and not as to men Saturne is taken for the father of them al. And looke what is found of the father is to bee verified of his ofspring The Historiographers therefore haue sayd that his wife did hide his children from him and the Poets haue sayd that hee did eate them vp because a Soothsayer had told him that one of them should depose him To auoyde the absurditie of the word Krouos which is Saturne the Stoikes haue turned it to Chronos that is to say tyme which deuoureth all things But how will they applye all the rest of the Allegorie vnto the Historie Who shall bee the daies lost and who the daies saued What shall Ops be and Iupiter and Pluto who shall be this sonne of tyme that perisheth not with the tyme nor afore it But Hermes whatsoeuer he be who knewe this pedegree well enough holdeth himselfe to the letter accounting Vranus Saturne and Mercurie among the rare men that were in tyme past And Ennius sayth that this Varnus was the father of Saturne and reigned afore him Now because Vranus in Greeke signifieth Heauen the Stoikes more fabulous as sayth Plutarke than the Poets haue called his sonne Time and his graundsonne Iupiter the Welkin or highest region of the ayre whom Euhemere reporteth to haue ordeyned Sacrifices vnto Vranus And Ennius his translator reporteth that he ordeyned them vnto his Graundfather Heauen who dyed in the Ocean and lyes buryed in Aulatie To be short of all these writers of antiquities such as Theodore the Gréeke Thallus Cassius Seuerus Cornelius Nepos and others were none describeth him otherwise than a man insomuch that euen Orpheus himselfe who canonized him for a God speaketh of him after the same maner What reade we of Iupiter Iupiter sayth the Historie deposed his owne father held his assemblies in Mount Olympus stole away Europa in a ship named the Bull and caryed away Ganymed in another ship called the Eagle but he forbare Thetis because an Achilles which should be a man of greater might than his father was to be borne of her Finally after he had made certeyne Lawes and parted the offices of his estate among his friends he dyed and was buryed in the Towne of Gnosus What a life is this but the life of a man yea and of a most wicked man vnworthie not to reigne in heauen but euen to goe vpon the earth Neuerthelesse because his successors inforced men to worship him as well as his Graundfather yea and he himselfe in his life tyme had caused his Subiects Uassalles and Confederates to dedicate Temples vnto him by reason whereof wee see he was called by the names of Labradie Ataburie Tryphill and diuers other all things were fayne to be applied and referred vnto him insomuch that of a man the Poets made him a God of the Mountayne Olympus they made Heauen of a Shippe and Eagle and of Thetis a Goddesse Yet for all this his buryall place putteth al out of doubt and so doth the Epitaph that Pythagoras wrate thereon For to haue a Temple in one place and a Tombe in another and to be worshipped with prayer in the one and to be eaten with wormes in the other are things farre differing Callimachus will needes taunt the Cretanes for shewing his Tombe with this inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Iupiter the sonne of Saturne and yet hee considereth not that in saying that Rhea was deliuered of him among the Parrhasians he himselfe maketh him to dye For what is birth but a beginning of death And therefore Sibill speaketh of the Gods in these words The fond vaynglory which the Cretanes vse About
their Goddes doth many a man abuse They be but gastly Ghostes and feendes of hel Or graues of men in whom no soule doth dwell To be short Amalthea and hir Goate that nurced Iupiter which were honored in the Capitoll and all his other misteries represented nothing els but the trauells of his Childhod and of his lyfe as how he was stolen away how he was hidden and how he was nurced all which things are a manifest derogation of his Godhead And Seneca taketh it to be a matter so woorthie to be laughed at that he forgetteth his owne grauitie to giue a mockâ—vnto it Seeing sayth he that this Iupiter was so lecherous why begetteth he not Children still if he be yet aliue Is it bycause he is threescore yeeres old Or hath the Lawe of Papie restreyned him Or hath he obteyned the priuiledge of three Children Or finally is it come into his mynd to looke for the same measure at other folks hands which he hath measured vnto others so as he is afrayd least some Sonne of his should deale with him as he himself delt with Saturne After that manner did this greate Philosopher mocke at his great God wherein he was so much the lesse to be excused bycause he woorshipped him knowing so much as he did As touching Iuno I wilnot stand so much vppon the Poets Varro himself saieth that she was brought vp in Samos and there maryed to hir brother Iupiter by whom shee could not conceyâ—e in respect whereof that Iland was called Parthenie that is to say Maydenland There also was hir famousest Temple where shee stoode in wedding attyre and hir yeerly feastes are in verie deede but playes ordeyned after the fashion of old tyme to represent hir lyfe that is to wit hir mariage hir iealosie and hir incest And as concerning Minerua Iupiters daughter wee reade that shee was deffowred by consent of hir father who had made a promise to Vulcane not to deny him whatsoeuer he should aske so monstruouse and Lawlesse was the whole race of them For as for Venus whose aduoutries are mo than hir Children Euhemere reporteth her too haue bin the first bringer vp of Stewes in the world and that hir woorshippers to honor her withall did call her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and such other which names euen a womaÌ„ that were very farre past shame would take in greate disdeyne To be short in the Temple where Cinaras King of Ciprus was buried who was the first that interteyned her surely I am ashamed that the Heathen were not ashamed of such shamefulnes but yet much more that such as beare the name of Christians are not ashamed too make songs thereof in their books Let vs procéede to the rest Neptune as their holy Historie reporteth had the Seacoast for his share or as othersome affirme he was Iupiters Admiral in respect wher of the Poets of our time call Admiralls Neptunes Pluto had the gouernement of lowe Countries which they disguysing turned into Hell Mars had the Leading of Souldiers in the warres and should haue bin hanged at Athens for a murther What maner of Godds I pray you be these which stand at mens courtesie for their grace And what is the Lawe of that Heauen which receyueth those for Godds whom men would haue hanged on the galowes vpon earth Also Apollo became a Shepeherd for loue and of a Shepeherd hee became Laomedons Mason He playd a feawe Iuggling tricks to deceiue folk withall but in the end as Porphyrius telleth vs hee was killed by Python mourned for by the daughters of Triopus and buryed at Delphos Who euer sawe a thing more ageinst reason than the transforming of him into the Sonne which is as much as to shet vp the Sonne into the earth But yet such are the Godds of the Greeks and Romanes that is to wit deadfolks euen kings and Quéenes whom loue or feare hath made to be taken for Gods And in good sooth they did not any thing to their Godds which men do not at this day to their dead to such as are of reputation They make them Temples Chappell 's and altars they apparell them after their age they set them vp Pensils and Penons according to their degree or trade of liuing they make them a funerall feast they celebrate Anniuersaries or Yeermynds all of one sort Insomuch that as Tertullian saieth the Obitfeast differeth not froÌ„ Iupiters feast nor the wodden Canne from his Drinking-cup nor the Cearer of deadfolks from the Birdgasers for the Birdgasers also had to deale with the dead And therefore wee must not think it straunge that Alexander would néeds be a God sith he knew that men woorshipped such or that Scipio Affricane thought that the greate gate of Heauen ought to bee set open for him for his argument concluded the lyke saying If men for slaughters made to heauen admitted be Then should the greatest gate of Heauen be opened vnto me Or that the gentle Ladies Larentia and Flora were Canonized at Roome for they deemed themselues to haue deserued as much by their professioÌ„ as Venus had deserued at the hands of the Cyprians Or that Caligula tooke vpon him to haue Altars erected and sacrifise offered vnto him for he was both more myghtie and also more mischeuous than those whome he worshipped Let this suffice for the Greate ones And for the Little ones we will content ourselues with Esculapius alone whom the Emperour Iulian that greate enemies of Christians commendeth as his sauior aboue all the rest He is sayeth he the Sonne of Iupiter Then say I he is a man for men begot not Goddes But he came downe intoo the World by the Sonne and from the Sonne vnto the Earth for the health and welfare of men What Author eyther in earnest or in iest did euer say so No but he was sayeth the Historie the sonne of the fayre Coronis renowmed in these verses A goodlyer Lady was not to be found In all Emonia going on the ground This Coronis being with Chyld by Apollos preest gaue it forth for the sauing of hir honor that she was gotten with Chyld by Apollo himself whereby it appeareth that hir sonne Esculapius was not the Chyld of Heauen as Iulian reporteth but as men sayd in old tyme a Chyld of the Earth that is to say a bastard And Tarquilius a Roman wryteth that he was a Chyld found in Messine and learned the vertues of some herbes at the hand of Chyron the Centaure and playd the Pedlar a whyle at Epidaure and that afterward being striken to death as Cicero saith with Thunder he was buried at Cyuosures To be short what miracle reade wee to haue bin done by him more than that he shewed men the herbs called Scordion and Asclepiodotes By which reason we may as well Deifie the bird Ibis for the Clisters or the Stag for the herb Ditanie But to conclude what a beastlynes were it to leaue the Creator of all things and to